The Wild Card of Reading : On Paul de Man

Rodolphe Gasche

ISBN 10: 0674952960 / ISBN 13: 9780674952966

Published by Harvard University Press Sep 1998, 1998

About this Item

Neuware - One of the most knowledgeable and provocative explicators of Paul de Man's writings, Rodolphe Gasché, a philosopher by training, demonstrates for the first time the systematic coherence of the critic's work, insisting that de Man continues to merit close attention despite his notoriously difficult and obscure style. Gasché shows that de Man's 'reading' centers on a dimension of the texts that is irreducible to any possible meaning, a dimension characterized by the 'absolutely singular.'Given that de Man and Derrida are both termed deconstructionists, Gasché differentiates between the two by emphasizing Derrida's primary interest in 'writing,' and postulates that the best way to come to terms with de Man's works is to 'read' them athwart the writings of Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Heidegger, and Derrida. He shows his respect for the 'immanent logic' of de Man's thought--which he lays out in great detail--while revealing his uneasiness at the oddness of that thought and its consequences.

Seller Inventory # 9780674952966

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Wild Card of Reading : On Paul de Man
• Publisher: Harvard University Press Sep 1998
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674952960
• ISBN 13: 9780674952966
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 234W x 159H x 25D millimeters 234 millimeters width by 159 millimeters height by 25 millimeters depth
• Weight: 459 grams

About this title

Synopsis

One of the most knowledgeable and provocative explicators of Paul de Man's writings, Rodolphe Gasché, a philosopher by training, demonstrates for the first time the systematic coherence of the critic's work, insisting that de Man continues to merit close attention despite his notoriously difficult and obscure style. Gasché shows that de Man's "reading" centers on a dimension of the texts that is irreducible to any possible meaning, a dimension characterized by the "absolutely singular."

Given that de Man and Derrida are both termed deconstructionists, Gasché differentiates between the two by emphasizing Derrida's primary interest in "writing," and postulates that the best way to come to terms with de Man's works is to "read" them athwart the writings of Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Heidegger, and Derrida. He shows his respect for the "immanent logic" of de Man's thought--which he lays out in great detail--while revealing his uneasiness at the oddness of that thought and its consequences.

About the Author

Rodolphe Gasché is Eugenio Donato Professor of Comparative Literature at the State University of New York at Buffalo.